Escape from Crater
by Write Renee Write
Summary: In an alternate universe where war has caused a global winter, the only places north of the equator suitable for human life are the craters left by war missiles. Reni, an orphaned teen who makes a living by making woollen clothing, lives in Crater. When a special, yet odd, order for merchandise comes in, she is anxious to see who wanted... Three-fingered gloves? Bad summary, sorry.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey, guys! Renee here with a random, dream inspired fic. I hope this turns out as totally awesome as I think it will, but that is up to you, my dear readers. **

**Anyhow, I'd like to point out that in this fic there is some DonniexOC (I had a request to change up the LeoxOC for this one. And I'm glad) and some Capril. But you won't know how the heck Casey gets into this until much, much later. **

**Enjoy your little hearts out. C:**

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><p><strong>Escape from Crater<strong>

It was a beautiful day in the Crater, although cold, but that was par for the course. The houses all had a decent amount of snow heaped on the roofs, and Reni smiled as she looked around at the sparkly white stuff. She never got sick of it, even if it stuck around all year. The brightly coloured vendors on Main could be seen from her rickety front porch. It stuck out like a sore thumb from the stark white and brown of the town. Wood smoke curled from the chimney of her crooked, worn and wooden abode, along with all of its neighbours and their chimneys.

Crater was bustling, although you'd never be able to tell from where Reni stood at the moment. It looked the same as it did every other day, and it had since before she could remember. The high walls of earth at the edge of the town loomed a good story over the tallest building in Crater. Above that, it was clear blue. A small, fragmented circle of blue. That was the only thing Reni wished she could see: more of the summer sky. Living In a literal hole put a damper on her horizons. If only they were allowed to climb to the top of the walls on good days.

Reni gathered her thoughts and stepped down from her front porch. Bundled in her shabby, patch-job jacket and mismatched fingerless mitts, she kicked through the snow toward Main with a bag of woollen accessories. Today was the trade fair, and the young girl with the bright eyes was selling her wares.  
>She also had another stop to make, with a special delivery, but it wasn't expected until supper time.<p>

Reaching her destination, she heard the sound of the band, their homemade instruments singing sweetly in the crisp morning air. Not for the first time, she was grateful that her booth was close to the square where they played. It gave her a good look at the boy who played the drum. He was cute, she admitted to herself, but although he was her best customer when it came to gloves, she could never get up the nerve to do anything other than business with him.  
>She passed several booths on her way to her own, but stopped when someone called out her name. Turning, she smiled at the familiar voice.<p>

"Hey Amir," she said cheerily to the young man behind the counter of the spicy food stand. "How is your father doing today? Better, I hope." The smell of spices filled her nose as she neared their source. She wondered if she could convince him to give her a mimosa before she left.

"He is, thank you. He told me to give you this for sending those bowls of soup over. He was getting tired of eating my cooking," he chuckled, the dark-toned skin around his eyes crinkling as he came around the counter to embrace his friend. "From father."

She hugged him back. "Tell him that he's welcome to come over any time he wants for more." They released each other.

"How's business?" Amir asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"Oh, so-so." She looked at his eyes, which were a few inches above her own, and noticed the shine in them. Realizing what he was hinting at, she mock-punched the boy in the arm.

"He hasn't bought any gloves yet, I just got here!" She referred to the drummer. She didn't know what he did, but every time he came back, his mittens were completely tattered.

"Well when he does come over to buy his gloves, try to make conversation with the guy! He's not going to magically like you if you don't talk to him."

Reni sighed at her friend, but she knew he was right. "I should open up shop. See you later?" Quickly, she snatched a mimosa from one of the steaming trays, and popped it into her mouth.

Amir tweaked her toque and smiled. "See you later."

* * *

><p>At her booth, Reni made all of her expected sales but one. In the time between, she thought about her special delivery. It was a big order, and quite strange: four hats, four scarves and four pairs of three-fingered gloves in four different colours. She was excited to see who had bought them. Reni was on a friendly basis with almost everyone in town, but as any other town (she assumed, she'd never been anywhere else) there were the few shut-ins.<br>It just so happened to be the shut-ins that wanted these items.

They'd better like them, she thought, for all the time she took to make them.  
>First, getting the wool from Mrs. Johnson's sheep was a day's work in itself. Since the sheep needed their wool to keep warm, she and Mrs. Johnson, the elderly lady next door, had to take wool from a bunch of different sheep. A big order like this took a lot more wool than usual!<p>

Then there was the day of brushing out and cleaning the wool. Again, there was a lot of wool, and it was a long process. The spinning wasn't so bad. Reni loved spinning yarn. Mrs. Johnson had taught her how to do it when she was younger, not long before her parents had caught the flu and died. Spinning had given her something to keep her mind off her parents until the friendly old lady had stopped knitting due to her arthritis. She found a talent in working with wool. Now, she did it for herself, giving Mrs. Johnson a portion of the profits, of course.

It had taken forever for Reni to dye all the wool she'd needed before she could even begin to start making it into the articles. She'd had to borrow some needles from her elderly neighbour, since hers had broken because they were old and brittle. Once they were finished, she didn't think she'd ever been more proud. They looked uniform and cozy at the same time, and for the first time making three-fingered gloves, she thought she did pretty well.

She peeked in her bag again, partly to make sure they were still there, and partly just to look at them. The red hat and gloves were sure to stain the head and hands of the wearer the first time they were worn. It had said specifically in the letter with the order for the colour to be dark and vivid. It was vivid, that was for sure. Reni thought it looked a little like blood. The blue was lighter in hue than the red. It reminded her of the sky. In fact, she had held the articles up to the sky often while working on them, to see how close the colour was.

The orange had been fun to knit with. It was such a bright colour, and while she had crafted with it, it had made her happier. The wearer ought to be a child, she mused. It matched the bright personality of one.

Lastly, there had been the purple. Purple dye was not the easiest to create, especially to get the violet tone the customer wanted. It required a lot of cabbage. Reni hated to admit that she had worked the hardest on the purple items. The colour was beautiful, and she just felt that those particular mittens were in need of some extra care. So was the hat. And the scarf.

Unbeknownst to the girl at the booth, a boy approached. He rapped on the table in front of her with his knuckles.

"Afternoon," the boy said in greeting.

"Gah!" Reni nearly jumped out of her skin, and she scrambled about, trying to organize herself before she noticed who the boy was. The cute drummer from the square. She stopped her scrambling and took him in, maybe for a little longer than was necessary. His dark hair was curly at the ends and in need of a trim; it fell into his dark brown eyes a bit. He was taller than she was, and often wore black, but he smiled a lot. His smile made her giddy, all perfect except for the eye teeth, which were crooked like his lopsided grin. She almost sighed.

Hadn't he said something to her? Oh, right!

Quickly composing herself, she replied, "Oh, um, yeah. Good afternoon to you, too, Morris. Here for your gloves?" She tried to hide the blush that came to her cheeks. Good thing it was cold out, so she had an excuse.

The boy nodded and dug in his pockets for the trade item he'd brought. "My da made these," he explained as he pulled them from his jacket, "so pardon if they aren't completely straight." He handed her two pairs of needles. Wooden knitting needles of two different sizes.

Reni beamed. How had he known that her old pair had gotten brittle and broken? "Oh, this is perfect! Thank you." She took them from him. "How did you know I needed a new pair?"

"Last month, when I bought these," he wiggled his fingers, "I overheard you talking to the guy in front of me that your old ones were close to breaking. I figured that since I needed somethin' to give you the next month, I might as well give you somethin' you need."

He'd been listening? The thought made her giddy all over again. She set the needles down and reached for the pair of gloves on the top of her bag. "I made them extra thick this time. Maybe you won't wear them out as fast."

He chuckled. "Maybe," he mused.

"I don't think I've asked before," Reni said, gathering her courage and keeping Amir's encouragement in mind, "but how do you wear out your gloves so fast?"  
>Morris smiled. "It's a secret."<p>

"Oh. Okay." Reni wasn't about to pry, so she let the subject drop. "Well, thanks for coming back, yet again," she said, awkwardly. Inwardly, she cursed her horrible social skills. She should have asked what he was doing later. She should have suggested that he come with her sometime to the dinette. But no, she didn't, and she mentally kicked herself.

"I'll be here next month," he said, swiping his purchase from the counter, and giving her a two fingered salute as he walked back to his band.

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><p>Later, when he brought the leftovers from his day at the trade fair over to her place, Amir groaned at how much of a chicken Reni was.<p>

"You really just... Dismissed him? Like 'yeah, great doing business with you, bye'?" He picked up a piece of food and popped it into his waiting maw.

Reni wasn't about to take flak from anyone. "Well, I don't think it came off that way."

"You essentially told him you weren't interested."

"Oh, yeah?" Reni bit back. "What do you call my blush-fest then? Doesn't that just scream 'I like you'?"

"Sure, sure. If he saw it over your already cherry-red cheeks. You get so red in the cold that I don't think he did."

Reni crossed her arms defensively. She hated that she turned red in the cold when everyone else seemed to be so well-adjusted. She was a throwback of evolution.

"Whatever," she growled. "I have a delivery to make. You coming?" She trudged the short distance to her front door and shrugged her jacket on.

Amir wobbled his head back and forth. "Yeah, why not," he decided, getting up from his rickety chair. "Where to, Chief?"

"Across town, near the wall. You know that house where most of the lights are never on, and the curtains are always closed? That one," she carried on when Amir nodded in understanding.

She grabbed the bag with all the woollen items and pushed open the door. She squinted into the evening glare of the snow, and stepped put onto her dreary front porch again. When Amir donned his clothing and joined her, they set off.

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><p>It took fifteen minutes to go from Reni's house to the delivery. The walk there was spent in comfortable silence and the sound of snow crunching under heavy boots. Both youth were apprehensive of who they would find opening the door. No one had ever seen who lived in there, not that they knew of.<p>

The house was the same sort that Reni's was, although... Creepier. The whole front was weathered, and looked as if no one had taken care of it in years. It was probably a good assumption. The shutters on the top floor windows were drawn shut, but crooked, giving the house a lopsided look that wasn't at all charming.

The mystery of the residents combined with the spookiness of the building had Reni bouncing anxiously on her toes as she knocked on the door. "I hope they answer," she mused aloud.

"Why wouldn't they?" Amir said sarcastically. "They wanted it at their door at this time."

"True."

There was a muffled scuffling noise, like someone had fallen, from behind the door, and it flew open.

"HELLO, THERE!" a... Thing with a creepy voice, lumpy and mismatched clothes, and green skin shouted from the threshold.

There was stunned silence from the two teens for approximately two seconds before Reni threw the bag of mittens and scarves at it, grabbed for Amir, and ran, screaming, back toward her house.

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><p><strong>AN: well, my friends, it seems Reni has met a turtle. **Which one? You tell me. We'll see who's right when the next chapter is up!

R&R, everyone!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: just a heads up, there are going to be some references made here that you won't get until later, so bear the confusion with me. Love ya!**

**Enjoy, my friends!**

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><p><strong>Escape from Crater<strong>

Mikey stood in the doorway as the two teens ran away. Mittens, toques and scarves were scattered about his feet from the girl throwing her bag at him, and he sighed as he bent to pick them up. He'd tried so hard for this not to happen, he'd covered up most of his green skin with one of Master Splinter's robes, found some of the other clothes lying around the house and tried to look as normal as possible, but apparently, he hadn't looked normal enough.

Leo had warned him about letting someone else open the door. But no one else was here but Master Splinter, and he was meditating! When Mikey had seen the two kids approaching from the upstairs window, he'd almost panicked and squeed at the same time. Panic because this is exactly what he wasn't supposed to do, and a cute little squee of excitement because this was exactly what he wanted to happen.

Leo, being Leo, had expected the delivery to be on-time to late, not twenty minutes early! Mikey'd had no choice but to open the door, or she might've just walked away.

'It could've been worse,' he thought to himself, pondering the worst-case scenarios.

Oh, well, at least the mittens were here. Had he paid for- nope. Crud.

Mikey took it in stride; it only meant that she'd be back, and he'd get to try again. The thought made him smile as he walked into the main living area with the bag of woolly things. Once he sat down, he ditched the robe and threw it across the back of their threadbare couch. He'd put it away later. Maybe he should make supper.

Mmm... Supper sounded like a good idea. Did they have the makings for pizza?

It was just then that Mikey's highly trained ninja ears picked up on noises- footsteps- coming from the roof. "Right on time, Leo. Too bad she was early," the freckled turtle muttered in a teasing tone.

Two more sets of footsteps joined the first. Outside, it was becoming darker, and it was the perfect time for the mischievous turtle's brothers to be coming home. No one would see them. He was expecting another person to be coming home as well, but you never knew when that one would feel like returning.

Entering the small kitchen, Mikey checked the icebox and the pantry for the ingredients for a pizza of some sort. He found tomato sauce in a can from seven years ago, roast meat, cabbage and some almost-stale bread. No cheese. You can't have pizza without cheese. Ah, well. Roast meat and tomato sauce sandwiches it is, then.

The back door opened, and a whisper of footsteps came in. Mikey opened the can of sauce as his siblings filed through the living room into the kitchen. It was Leo who realized something was amiss.

"Mikey, why is Master Splinter's robe on the sofa? And what's in this bag?"

Mikey could hear the blue-clad turtle round the couch and open the bag, while Raph and Donnie pulled out their chairs and sat at the kitchen table. Mikey opened the bread and waited for Leo to say something. No way was he going to speak up when he knew what would happen if he did.

"She... She was early?" Leo asked incredulously.

"Yeah, seemed as though her internal clock was a bit fast," Mikey answered in a conversational tone. He spread the sauce over twin slices of bread that he grabbed from the breadbox.

"Some of these are wet," came Leo's statement from the living room.

Mikey paused for thought. What would be the best half-truth to tell in this situation?

"Yeah, she dropped the bag in the snow," he said.

"Why?"

Of course Leo asked why a girl dropped a bag in the snow. There could be a million reasons. It didn't mean that one of them had to be that she saw a giant talking turtle and ran away screaming... Even when that was exactly it.

"I don't know, why don't you ask her?" Mikey spit out the rhetorical question in the most non-sarcastic voice he could muster. He continued to the icebox to grab the roast meat.

Meanwhile, Donnie and Raph were trying to keep from snickering too loudly. They'd figured this out almost as soon as they'd sat down. Mikey was in for it, for sure.

There was a pause from the living room as Leo put two and two together. "Did you pay her, Mikey?"

He was cutting the meat into slices and placing them neatly on the bread now. The youngest turtle gulped at the question before confessing quietly, so that Leo didn't hear him, "No..."

"What, Mikey?" Leo said. "Speak up."

"No, I didn't pay her," Mikey said, this time, loud enough for his eldest brother to hear. The two at the table chortled, covering their mouths with their hands.

"Why not?" Leo's tone was getting more heated with each question he asked. Leave it to Mikey to botch a delivery. Curse the girl for coming early, and curse Mikey for answering the door! Hadn't he told Mikey that he would handle it?

"Because..." Mikey said lamely. He stopped preparing the sandwich. He knew he was done for.

"Mikey!" The oldest turtle was getting impatient with these games. He wanted a straight answer five minutes ago! He stormed into the kitchen and stood next to Mikey with crossed arms and a cross expression.

The youngest abruptly sighed and gave in, turning to face his brother. "Okay, fine! I opened the door to get the stuff and she saw me and ran away with her friend, screaming. I was even wearing the robe! I didn't even look scary."

Leo ran his hand over his face. "There were TWO of them?" the leader in blue choked out.

"She brought her friend," the young turtle explained. He didn't see what was so wrong with that.

"Mikey!" Leo exclaimed in exasperation.

"Whaaaaat?"

"This is just like in the Hole. Only now it's you screwing up, not Raph or Casey." Mikey's eyes went wide. Yeah, he really hadn't taken that into consideration, but the comparison hurt. He could tell Raph was peeved by the comment, too. It was a topic not often brought up.

"You know what we're gonna have to do now, right?" Donnie piped up from the table, where the mood had turned from jovial to brooding.

Leo let out a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, Don, I do. Either we take her out, which we CAN'T," he stressed, using his hands to clear the issue, "or we let her know about us and hope to God that she doesn't tell a soul. She might give us away if we just let her wander around without knowing what the deal is with us."

"Either way, we owe her for the stuff," Raph pointed out.

"Right," Leo acknowledged.

"So revealing ourselves to yet ANOTHER two people it is, then," Donnie said discouragingly.

Leo turned his head to glare at Mikey, who cowered by the counter. "It seems we have no choice."

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><p>Reni stopped screeching about halfway back to her house with Amir in tow. She had to in order to catch her breath. Well, that and Amir had fallen a while back, and Reni had been half-dragging him behind her.<p>

Several people had peered out their windows in disapproval at the two noisy youngsters. It was almost curfew, and kids were usually at home by this time. Well, at least they usually were in this part of Crater.

Amir clambered to his feet from the ground. "I didn't know you could scream that loud and run that fast at the same time," he panted. "I didn't know anyone could."

"I assure you, it takes tremendous amounts of talent." Reni was out of breath; her words came out in bursts. "What... Do you know what that was? I mean, it looked like a giant- turtle!"

"In a kimono. It was in a kimono," Amir added, a finger in the air for emphasis and his other hand supporting his weight on his knee.

"A big, green, kimono-wearing turtle," Reni concluded. "Are we high on something? Did you put something new in the mimosas today?"

Amir shook his head and straightened from his crouched position. "No, nothing."

"But how was that not a hallucination?"

Amir shook his head again. Both teens were at a huge loss. How in the world could there be any such thing as a giant talking turtle in that house?

Reni stuck her hands to her face and dragged them down. In mid-pull she froze, a horrified look on her face. "I left the bag," she whispered.

"What?"

Reni took her hands from her face and was immediately in Amir's face, clutching his collar. "I left the bag at the house! I threw it at the turtle before we ran away, and I left it. I didn't even get paid. I'm gonna suffer from this, I know it. I had a lot riding on that payment." She swore and threw her hands to her sides.

"Get it tomorrow, when we aren't hallucinating," Amir suggested, taking Reni's elbow and leading her back toward her house. "I bet we wake up with headaches tomorrow because someone spiked the town's water."

"But-" Reni started to protest, but Amir just shushed her.

"No, you are going home. I am going home. Tomorrow we will get your payment. That's it, that's all."

Reni let out a huff. "Fine, daddy," she said mockingly.

The duo walked the rest of the way back to Reni's place, where Amir gathered up his dishes and leftovers and left again. On his way out the door, he reminded her that tomorrow they would pick up the payment from the hallucination turtle.

Reni couldn't help but grumble a resentful "I know," as he closed the door.

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><p>Leonardo disallowed his brothers to don the garments the girl had brought until they had been paid for. So there they were, cold and toque-less, on the roof of said girl's house. The smoky scent of wood burning was heavy in the air as the white mass curled from the chimney. It hid the three brothers rather well. Mikey was still at home. He'd had enough fun with the girl for one day, according to the leader in blue.<p>

"Okay, guys," Leo said in the midst of the greyish veil. "We go in, we're quiet, we ask her what she wants, and if we got it, we give it to her and leave. Okay?"

He received two nods and slid down the side of the house to a window. He promptly opened it with his kogatana blade and slipped inside. The others followed soundlessly.

The house was one level, full of creaky floorboards and drafty walls. The trio of turtles crept along the edges of the short hallway to the entrance of the living room, where a light was still on.

Suddenly, there was a thud. Leo groaned inwardly and turned to see Donatello struggling to get up with his tangled feet. What was the point of being quiet if you were going to trip over your own feet and ruin the plan anyway?

"Is anyone there?" The girl called from her place on the couch where she had been knitting and reading simultaneously.

Donnie has stopped his shuffling, but Leo guessed it wasn't enough to satisfy the girl's curiosity when he heard he get up from her spot and head for the hall. He panicked for a split second, which cost him the chance to, perhaps, hide. The human teen peered around the corner, thankfully looking the opposite direction. Leo took his chance and started to move back along the hall, only to trip over the still downed Donatello. Another resounding thump was heard as the leader fell flat on his shell. The three turtles froze solid.

The girl immediately turned with a gasp of surprise. Laying her eyes on each of the turtles in front of her, her eyes widened to a size that shouldn't be humanly possible.

Leo, the socially awkward guy he was, said the first thing that came to mind: "Uh, hi. I'm Leo."

The sight was a lot for her to take in. After uttering an almost inaudible, incredulous "turtles," she promptly fainted.

Raph, the first of the brothers to thaw himself from the shock, reached down to help his two stunned brothers untangle themselves. As he assisted his older brother, he smirked and glanced over at the unconscious teen on the floor.

"Nice one, Fearless."

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><p><strong>AN: yeah, Reni is a wimp. It's true. Can't handle the sight of giant mutant turtles twice in one day. XD **

I love writing this story, guys. Like, you don't even know. It's my baby c: I'm likely to have another chapter up by this time next week. No promises, though. Who's excited? I'm excited!

Send me a review! I'm running out of inspiration juice for Heart-to-Hearts. I have the upcoming chapter on the way, but after that... Meh. So, yeah! If you have any ideas, you know where to send them.

And what's everyone's opinion of a Raph-centric chapter in Heart-to-Hearts? O.o

**R&R everyone! C:**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: lots of back and forth between the turtles and Reni's objective. **Heh... It's not really point of view, because it's third person. But one section will be third person focused on Reni, and the next will be third person focused on the turtles. Does that make sense? I dunno. But I did it, so ta-daa!

By the way, I'm sorry about this being so late. I was lazy. And I realized I was more behind in one of my classes than I thought. Whoops.

**Enjoy, everybody!**

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><p><strong>Escape from Crater<strong>

Reni drifted in blackness for a while. She had to have time to process the... "Things" that had invaded her house. She was pretty sure they were reptilian. Were they're same as the turtle at her delivery? They looked pretty similar, even though they were all different sizes and she only got a good look at the one in the front before she'd fainted.

If they were the same thing as the turtle at that house, did that mean she was still hallucinating?

Great. She was gonna have to find a different water source or something if this kept up. Melt the snow. Something was going on, and Reni was anxious to find out. First, though, she'd have to wake up.

* * *

><p>Leo was automatically defensive after his hothead brother's comment. "Hey, I didn't make her faint! If she fainted because she saw us this way, she probably would have fainted if the plan had worked properly anyway."<p>

"Doubt it, Fearless. Besides, you're the one who tripped and made the almighty plan fail in the first place, so-"

"Guys, is this really necessary right now?" the tall turtle, who was kneeling next to the unconscious teen, interrupted. "We need to get her to wake up, not fight with each other to see whose fault it is." He turned back to the unconscious figure.

"Uhm... Girl? Girl, wake up," Donatello said, patting her face gently, trying to bring her to consciousness. In this close proximity, the tall turtle had to admit that she was quite pretty. And her skin was soft, too. But her lip showed the evidence of a lot of nervous biting, and he couldn't help but think that it was sorta Mikey's fault. Raph was standing with his arms crossed, complaining about the fragility of humans in general, and WHY are we sticking around for a wimpy knitter girl, and can't we just go home, this is stupid.

Loudly, Leo told Raph to shut up.

The girl's fingers twitched, just slightly, and Donatello scootched back. "Guys, she's waking up." He patted her face again, saying soothingly, "Hey, come on, wake up."

"Would this have gone faster if we'd poured water on her?" Raph asked, voice dripping with attitude.

"Raph, get over it. We aren't leaving until we give the girl her payment and sort of explain why Mikey answered the door like he did. And tell her she isn't crazy, because she probably thinks she's crazy," Leo told him.

Raph hmphed in annoyance.

Meanwhile, the girls eyes opened. Donatello, caught up in his brothers' conversation, didn't notice until he heard her sharp intake of breath. Looking down into wide, frightened grey eyes, he said, "Oh, hey. Welcome back."

She screamed, awful and loud. Donatello tried to calm her, but to no avail. "Wh-who are you what are you doing in my house!?" she scrambled out in a single breath, trying desperately to somehow get away from him. Donatello had taken hold of her shoulders, though, so there was no chance for her much-wanted escape.

"Wait, wait! Don't be scared, we aren't here to hurt you," Leo said, hands palms-up, showing surrender. "Just calm down, okay?"

"What ARE you?" demanded the panic-stricken teen.

"Turtles, duh," said Raphael, turning and pointing at his back. "See the shells?"

"I'm dreaming," the girl concluded in a paranoid tone, slapping her hands to her face. "I fell asleep on the couch, and now I am dreaming about the hallucination turtle. Only, there's more than one hallucination turtle now... Amir HAD to have put something new in the food."

The rant put a few confused looks on the brothers' faces. Deductive reasoning had Donnie thinking that Amir might be this girl's friend, the one that she took with her to make the delivery. Hallucination turtle must be Mikey. The part about Amir putting something in her food was weird.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, toots, but I'm way too good to be a dream," Raph said, taking his opportunity to make a shining second impression. Donnie shook his head. Way to make friends, bro.

Donnie peeled a hand from her face, only to find her eyes glued shut. "Hey, we aren't here to hurt you. We wanted to give you something back for the things you made for us."

One eye opened a crack, and she looked at him. "What?"

"The three-fingered gloves and the hats and scarves," Leo explained. "We are the ones who ordered them. We're really sorry about... Mikey. He's the one who answered the door for you. It wasn't in the plan for him to scare you off like that, even though he didn't mean it."

* * *

><p>"YOU guys ordered the mittens?" She glanced down at the hand restraining her wrist, noticing for the first time that it only included three digits. "Oh." Everything was coming together now. She wasn't dreaming, or hallucinating, or crazy. How would her brain come up with anything like that with the only evidence being that her customer had three fingers? So these guys were real. And they'd snuck into her house... For what reason exactly?<p>

"And since you sorta threw the bag of stuff at Mikey and ran, he didn't have a chance to pay you. So that's why we're here. What would you like for the mittens?"

Reni's thoughts were reeling. These turtle-men were here to pay her for their mittens. Why did that surprise her? Thinking about it a little deeper, she supposed it was because they resembled animals. Animals don't pay for things. But these guys seemed more human that some of her neighbours did, despite their appearance. She didn't know what to expect to trade with them. When she'd crafted the odd gloves, she'd been expecting someone eccentric, not a bunch of mutant turtles. "I guess... I mean, what do you have?" Food would be nice, she thought. It's always good to have a full pantry.

The turtle in blue-didn't he say his name was Leo?-pondered for a moment, then chuckled. "Well, I suppose if you needed a bodyguard, we'd be your guys. But it seems the only people you need protection from are us, so that's out." The two other turtles grinned. "I suppose Master Splinter could carve you anything you'd like."

Reni's mind whirled with the possibilities, but stuck on one tiny detail. "Who's Master Splinter?"

"Our teacher, our father-"

"You mean, you were born like this? You have a mom and everything?"

"Not really," the tallest one said. "It's a long and boring story."

"Back to the topic of what you want in exchange for your work," Leo said, cutting off any potential line of conversation that would result in her asking what the long and boring story was about.

"Oh, right. Could he make a circle loom? And do you have any meat you don't need?" She was, admittedly, warming up to these turtles. They didn't seem so bad; just green and a little scaly, except the one in red. He had a mouth on him. Besides, business was a comfortable topic, and she did need a loom. It was so much easier to make hats on.

"If you tell him how they look, I'm sure he could make one," Leo confirmed. "As for the meat, I'm not too sure. Mikey is usually the one who keeps inventory over food. He does make really good bread, though, if we don't have meat."

"That'll work." She paused, then pointed at the turtle in blue. "So, I know your name, you're Leo. But who are you two?" She glanced at the other turtles and then back to Leo for her answer. The tall, purple-clad one smiled awkwardly at her. He had a gap between his two front teeth. It was cute, for a reptile. The one in red had is nose... Or snout, maybe, in the air and a pretentious look on his face. He wasn't going to answer her anytime soon.

Luckily, Leo was. "That one back there is Raphael. Raph, we call him. Don't worry; usually his bark is worse than his bite. Right, Raph?" he called. The brother hmphed. Reni had the feeling he did that a lot.

"This is Donatello," Leo said, motioning to the turtle who was still attached to her wrist, albeit less tightly than before. "He's our tech wizard, and our resident medic. Much more friendly than Raph." Donatello smirked. "We call him Donnie for short."

Then, with a flourish and a bow, Leo formally introduced himself.

"And I am Leonardo, the leader. Pleased to meet you...?"

"Renee," the girl said, taking her queue. "People call me Reni. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." She smiled and stuck out her hand for him to shake. Still bowing, with one hand behind his back, he shook her hand. Donnie, perhaps noticing that he was still grasping her wrist, let out a short hiss of a breath and dropped it.

"Sorry," he said.

"No, it's fine... Donnie," Reni assured him, testing the waters with his name, and held her hand out to shake his as well. Donnie was flushed as they shook hands. He looked a little embarrassed.

Finally, she stood from her position on the floor where she had fainted and trod over to Raphael. The turtle still had his nose in the air. Gingerly, Reni offered her hand. She got the vibe from him that all he wanted was to take it and crush it, but she wasn't about to back down now. He glanced down at her outstretched limb then rolled his eyes. His arms unfolded and he roughly pumped her hand up and down. He barely finished the shake before he let go. Reni thought that if she was ever going to see them again, Raph would probably be the guy to ignore her every minute of the day.

One thing still had her puzzled, though. She turned to Leo. He seemed most prone to giving answers.

"You guys aren't wearing kimonos. The one at the house-"

"Mikey," Leo clarified.

"Mikey, then," she continued. "He was wearing a kimono."

Simultaneously, Leonardo and Donatello's hands came up to rub their faces in the way that siblings do when their brother has done something weird or humiliating. Reni saw it a lot when she was hanging around with Amir and his family. She smiled.

"Ah, so he wasn't supposed to be wearing a kimono is my interpretation."

"Yeah," Donatello said with a slight groan. "But technically, it wasn't really his fault you were early."

"I was? Oh. Whoops," the girl said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. Leo smiled.

"It's alright. I'm not sure the plan we had would have worked out if you'd have showed up later. Especially because you brought your friend."

Thoroughly humbled, Reni decided to change the route this conversation was taking. "So if your... Master needs some guidance on how to carve a loom, does that mean I get to meet him?" Both Raphael and Donatello's eyes darted to their leader; Raph's were challenging, and Leo paid no heed. Donnie's were genuinely curious, although somewhat cautious.

Leo took time to make his decision, sharing knowing glances with his purple-banded brother.

"I don't think it could hurt. Tomorrow morning, come to the house. Early, if you can. We'll make tea."

"Sounds like a plan," Reni beamed. Yeah, these guys weren't so bad. It took a few ...running starts to get used to them, but Reni thought that they would turn out to be good friends in the long run. Four new customers didn't hurt either.

She watched as the three turtles hopped silently out of her window. When she went to close it, they had disappeared into the night.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: ahh, it's good to be done another chapter. **I'm excited for the next one because... Well, you'll find out. C: it may very well be the first real thing I have planned in this story so far. I sorta fly by the seat of my pants, so to speak. I really hope I don't come up with continuity errors or anything.

**Anywho, I'll see you all in chapter four, lovelies!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: tadaaaa! I finished the fourth chapter! I'm sorry it took this long. **I had life for a while. As for now, I have no idea where chapter five is going so it might take a bit for that to get on the internet as well. Summer's on its way, guys! I can do things in the summer! Like write and draw and wow I have a lot of stuff to do.

Anyway, you didn't come here for my life story. You came here for this story! To let you know, there's some perspective jumping. I don't know if its obvious or not as to who the POVs belongs to, but... **Enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Escape from Crater<strong>

Reni ran through fresh snow to Amir's house the next morning. On the way she debated telling him about her encounter with the other three not-hallucination turtles, or telling him that she was going to go by herself and not inform him about the turtles. On the one hand, she didn't know how the turtles, who seemed quite secretive and probably wanted to keep themselves out of public scrutiny, would take having another uninvited guest at their home. On the other, Amir had said he wanted to take her back the next morning, and it would be weird and suspicious for her to say, "Nah, it's fine, I'm gonna go on my own."

She was still undecided when she rapped three times on the door to her friends house and let herself in. Immediately, there was an explosion of noise, arms and legs as the children who lived there rushed to meet their visitor.

"Reni! Good morning, hi, I made a whole bunch of paper chains yesterday, I helped dad make dinner, Amir's in his room, I'll get him, no me!"

The girl laughed as the flurry of limbs raced down the hall, forgetting her just as quickly as they'd noticed her. She knew they'd be back. The flurry had names, of course. The two boys were Hanan and Baldev, who were only a year apart at twelve and eleven. They were often getting into trouble. Most times, with their sister, Janessa, who was three years younger than Baldev. Reni felt sorry for her sometimes because the boys liked to leave her behind when they went out to play. She was constantly trying to keep up with them. The three bustling bodies pounded on the door to their oldest sibling's room, screaming his name. Reni giggled. They went out of their way, sometimes, to make him annoyed.

Amir shouted at them from behind the door and the three mischievous bodies tittered, covering the sound with their hands. Janessa then politely rapped her knuckles on the thin wood and said in a syrup-sweet voice, "Amir, Reni is here to see you."

A soft shuffle came from inside the room, probably Amir putting away a book and getting off his cot, and he exited his room. Peering with deep brown eyes down his thin nose at his siblings as he walked past them, he gathered his outerwear and joined his friend at the door. "Are we off?"

Reni struggled with her thoughts for a half second. Were they? Or was it just herself? What reasons did she have for not letting him come? Only that she didn't know how the turtles would react to another person, and she could probably deal with that. Amir was trustworthy; she trusted him with more than what she trusted some adults with. She was pretty sure he wouldn't tell anyone about them if they asked him not to.

She'd made up her mind. Amir was coming, and she could deal with whatever leader Leonardo said about it.

"Yep, let's go." She led the way out the door and down the street. He closed the door behind him.

* * *

><p>Mikey hummed as he put the kettle on to boil. It was an old tune that he'd heard once when he passed by the open window of a senior citizen.<p>

"Polly, put the kettle on,

Polly, put the kettle on,

Polly, put the kettle on,

We'll all have tea."

He figured it was some sort of nursery rhyme. It was catchy, anyway.

Pretty soon, Mikey would be joined by Leonardo. He'd sure be surprised when he saw that Mikey was the first one up; that spot was usually filled by him or Master Splinter. When he heard that the girl from the day before was coming back, he couldn't quit thinking about it. New faces were what Mikey lived for! He would get to make friends with her, ask her questions, have someone to talk to other than his brothers for once! That is, if she kept her cool this time.

Sensei's robe was neatly folded in the closet, for just that reason. No kimonos for him this time around. He was determined to make his best impression, now that he knew that she probably wouldn't run away screaming. While the water boiled, he grabbed tea from the cupboard and the broom from the pantry. A good impression starts with a clean house, right?

Mikey's cleanup was half-assed at best. He was the one who cooked. Donnie and Leo cleaned, so he had never really done it before. He swept and dusted with fervour; maybe a little too much fervour. As he dusted, he knocked a set of wooden bowls off their shelf with his elbow creating a thunderous noise in the still sleeping household. Mikey cringed. With his luck, he probably woke up Raph.

Mikey heard a shuffling from inside on of the rooms near him. He crept closer, determined not to make any more noise, and sighed in relief when it stopped and he heard a snore.

"Phew, that was close," he whispered to himself.

There was a faint squealing from the kitchen. Remembering the kettle, he lightly rushed to the stove and removed it before it got too loud.

Mikey's keen ears heard padded footsteps over the sound of pouring water into the teapot and he turned to the door in time to see his sensei walk into the kitchen. "Ohayō, Master Splinter," Michelangelo greeted his father and teacher cheerily.

"Good morning, my son," he said, stepping gracefully toward his student. "Why are you up so early?"

Mikey smiled. "I was excited, Sensei. I couldn't sleep. So I got up and made tea and cleaned up a little. I wanted to make a good... Well, a better impression than last time."

"Ah," the old rat said, stroking his beard. The corners of his mouth twitched into a smile. He had heard the story of Michelangelo's incident with the knitter girl and her friend. In fact, it had been told to him in great detail by his orange-clad son himself. "You aren't wearing my robes, then," he concluded.

"Pshh, no way. I'm not gonna make the same mistake twice." He thought for a moment before adding, "At least not that one."

Master Splinter patted the young turtle on his shell.

"It is good of you to want to make friends, but remember: being yourself is the best way to make the best impression."

"Hai, Sensei," the young terrapin said, smiling.

* * *

><p>The two friends had walked from Amir's house to the far side of town. Even though Reni had insisted they hurry, Amir was in no rush. It was still early. So Reni shoved her hands deep into her pockets and grumbled as the boy next to her whistled a lively tune.<p>

The fact that he could whistle made her grumble more. Mostly because she couldn't whistle to save her life. Partly because Amir only knew the chorus of the song, and kept repeating it over and over. Halfway to their destination, she clapped a mitted hand over his mouth. "Shh," she growled, a menacing look in her eye. The dark-skinned boy gulped a theatrical gulp and nodded. When she lifted her hand, Amir's mouth was turned up in a smirk. They talked the rest of the way there, but Reni didn't mention the turtles. She wanted to see how that played out, even if it was a little mean.

They reached the turtles' door just as the sun was peeking over the ridge of the crater, above their house. Dazzling yellow light cascaded from above and refracted off the snow-laden landscape. It was beautiful; enough so that Reni wished she could paint, just so she could capture it. She would look at the scene forever if she could, but right now she had a payment to work out.

Amir knocked three times on the door. He would have knocked a fourth time, but the door flew open with enough force to cause a breeze to go past the two teens standing on the threshold and his hand missed the door.

Just inside stood what Reni guessed was the fourth brother. Mikey. He was smaller than his brothers, his face was round, and he wore an orange mask that tied in the back with two small tails. He was grinning widely as he gestured for the two of them to come in.

* * *

><p>Amir was quite pale and unusually quiet. He had really not been expecting a humanoid turtle. Especially not one who seemed to be expecting them. He'd thought that someone had played an elaborate prank on them the night before, to maybe get free stuff. This was starting to get weird.<p>

Once Reni and Amir were inside, the blue-eyed turtle closed the door behind them. "Good morning. You can leave your coats on the back of the couch, if you want. There's tea in the kitchen. Come on!"

Suddenly, another green figure formed from the shadows wearing a blue mask. "Wait, wait," it said, holding out his hand to stop the overly excited one from advancing. "Mikey," he chastised, "don't you think that they should be informed about something before they go in there?" Now Amir was convinced beyond doubt that they knew he and Reni were coming. This was all too planned. But Reni didn't seem to be freaking out in the least. Was she playing a prank on him? He was going to kill her if this was a prank on him.

Amir looked sharply at his friend. "Yeah, Reni, don't you think I should be informed about some things before we go in places?" he murmured. Reni looked sheepish for a moment, then cleared her throat.

"Uhm, Leonardo and Michelangelo?" Wait, how did she know their names? It WAS a set up! Reni was dead. "This is Amir. Mikey, you already have met him, and you've already met me, although we never properly got to know one anoth-" the end of her sentence was cut off by a bone crushing hug from the orange-banded turtle, and Amir was worried that the affection would be shared with him soon. He inched backwards.

"I am SO sorry I scared you guys!" Mikey exclaimed, still crushing Amir's friend in his vice grip. Leonardo had a worried look on his face as he flitted around the two of them and tried to pry the baby-faced turtle away from the girl, but there was no stopping the monster hug. "I really only wanted to make a good impression but I guess I suck at those. I'm sorry, sorry, sorry."

With effort, Reni managed, "It's okay. Can you let me go now?"

"Oh." Mikey let her go all at once. She panted a bit to get back her breath before commenting on his grip. Mikey had the good sense to look bashful about it.

Continuing with her introduction, Reni said, "Amir, this is Leonardo and Michelangelo. They are brothers. Leonardo came to my house last night with their other two brothers, Raphael and Donatello, and asked me what I wanted to trade for the hats and gloves." She leaned over and whispered in his ear, as if the others didn't already know, "I fainted." Amir could see why.

Leo put out his hand for the boy to shake. "It's nice to meet you, Amir."

"Likewise," Amir said, taking his hand.

Leonardo turned back to Reni and said quietly, "Sorry about Mikey. He gets a bit over excited sometimes... But you already knew that."

"Hey!" Mikey shouted defensively.

"Anyway, back to what I was saying about informing you about something. Just going to warn you that Master Splinter doesn't really look like us. He's a rat," the turtle with the blue mask concluded.

Reni and Amir glanced at each other. "Okay," Reni said. Was he serious, or was he being figurative? Neither had a chance to ask. Mikey ushered them into the kitchen, nearly pushing them through the door, where a very large rat sat at the table with a steaming teacup.

"This is Master Splinter," the young turtle said to the duo, excitedly.

If Amir had been pale before, he was like snow now. This was no normal rat. It was huge! If he hadn't been warned before entering the warm cooking area, he might have taken a page out of Reni's book and fainted. Mikey glanced at the boy standing back from the scene, who was quivering a bit with fear and he giggled quietly to himself.

"You're a real rat," Amir emitted shakily.

"Yes, I am. And you are human," the rat master replied in a tone that wasn't as much sarcastic as it was purposefully redundant. Reni looked surprised by the quick rebuttal, but smiled. Amir guessed that she was getting used to the strange and unlikely now. Soon, giant talking turtles and their rat masters breaking into your house at night would become the societal norm.

Though outwardly, he was handling this situation far better than Reni had at her house, inwardly, he was only able to process one thing at a time. Currently, that one thing was 'giant talking rat-person.' Whatever he thought he'd been prepared for when he knocked three times on the door only minutes before, it was not this. Not giant rats and turtles that could talk.

"Well, okay," Mikey butted in. "Master Splinter, this is Renee and her friend..." Mikey paused.

* * *

><p>"Amir," Reni filled in, seeing as Amir was too fazed out to answer. Reni knew the feeling.<p>

"Her friend, Amir," repeated Mikey.

"Welcome. Sit. I am told to are in need of a circle loom. How would one go about making one of these, Miss Renee?" the rat asked, as if this was a perfectly normal situation and he was a perfectly normal person.

Reni liked this approach. Straight and to the point, no beating around the bush. She pulled a chair out for herself and one for Amir next to it and they sat down. She tried not to stare at the rat's whiskers and ears as they twitched. "Please. It's just Reni," she corrected before continuing, "Well, a simple one is just a hoop with knobs all the way around, about half an inch apart. This tall," she explained, holding up her fingers about two inches apart. "The little knobs should have some sort of stopper, like a ball on top, to keep the yarn from just-" she made a dramatic gesture to demonstrate, "falling off the loom." Mikey and Leo watched the conversation from their place behind Master Splinter, and with the gesture, Mikey made a lopsided smirk. It made Reni smile.

"I see," mused the rat, whiskers twitching again. "How large in diameter do you wish this loom to be?"

"The diameter of the average head, if you can, please."

"Do you plan on making hats?" Splinter questioned.

"Yes, I do," she said in a professional tone.

The rat leaned in a bit over his tea before asking, quite seriously, "Could you perhaps create a hat with holes for my ears? Tucking them in is very uncomfortable, you must imagine."

"Oh, um..." She swayed left and right, surveying Master Splinter's cranium, all the while fascinated by the way his ears followed her every move while his head remained still. "Yes, I think I could, if you don't mind me taking measurements."

"Not at all, Miss Reni."

Reni refrained from correcting the wise looking rat. The way he said "miss" so formally was a new experience. Nearly everyone in Crater called her Reni, and just Reni. Formalities were almost always forgotten in a town this small. The families had known each other for generations. No one left, no one came in. Or no one did until this mismatched family of turtles and a rat came along about four years ago.

Their arrival had been almost silent, which made sense now because of how sneakily they had gotten into her house. Through the second floor window, no less. No one really noticed they were there until they were settled in and everything. And no one had ever seen them, just lights on in the upper parts of the building, and silhouettes on the blinds.

Reni reached for her measure tape, which she kept tied around her waist, only to find it wasn't there. She must have left it on her nightstand in her rush to get out of the house this morning. She swore under her breath, a barely noticeable movement of her lips. "Could I come back another time? I don't seem to have my measuring tape with me."

* * *

><p>Mikey's face lit up like the sun when she suggested that she should come back again. Another chance to make her his friend! The impression had been made, and he was pretty sure it was a better one than yesterday's, so he was already one step ahead. But it didn't look like this time he was going to get enough time to show off his amaze-tastic kata or his best jokes or his awesome ability to sneak up on you no matter how much you were paying attention. Oh well, she was coming back.<p>

Just then, his honed ninja hearing picked up the shuffled steps of a zombie. Or probably just Donatello dragging himself to the kitchen for his first cup of coffee.

It was both, or close enough to it. Donnie looked like the dead walking, and it was bad. Worse than any normal day for some reason. He must have stayed up with an invention last night. The two people at the table didn't acknowledge the ghastly form entering the room. Mikey didn't think Reni even noticed; her back was to the door.

The conversation between the rat and the girl never faltered while Mikey's attention was drawn away, and he missed Master Splinter's reply to Reni's question. He never got to ask what it was either, because suddenly Donnie had yanked him out of the kitchen and into the living room again. He looked a lot less dead now.

"Why did no one wake me up when she got here?" he asked, his voice still hoarse with sleep.

"I don't know, nobody thought about it. The sun's not even over the ridge yet. Chill out, bro."

"Well, I would have appreciated somebody doing that, thank you very much," the tall turtle sassed.

"Okay, man. Next time, I'll personally wake you up. Sound good?"

"Sounds better."

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><p><strong>AN: Oooooooooh look who's got a cruuushh!** It's Donnie! Donnie has a crush! And it's on Reni! (I love writing Donnie. He's so sassy and I just can't fathom him being any other way.)

That was a really awkward place to end the chapter, but this is the longest one I've written for the internet, so I figured I would take a break. Phew! 3000 words. Thank you all for reviewing this, those of you who did. I would sure like to have more of those. C:

And hey! If y'all want to read something totally fantastic yet slightly messed, go read my good buddy NekoShard's fic Faded Memories and give her some words of encouragement and whatnot. She's sorta having a tough time.

Gah, I wonder what I'm gonna do with the next chapter. *headdesk* oh gods.

Well, you guys write me a review, and I'll see you next chapter! **R&R everyone!**

p.s. In case you came here for my life story: I woke up with a tick on me today so I was mad. I was so mad. I hate ticks more than I hate anything. There you go. You learned something about me, yay!


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